Anura Yapa, Go Home! You Failed Miserably

By Eranda Ginige –JUNE 5, 2017

Eranda Ginige

An Open Letter to Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Minister of Disaster Management, Sri Lanka

Lives of innocent children were taken not by the rain, but by the inaction, negligence and failure of you and your ministry who are responsible and accountable for managing disasters in Sri Lanka.

Are the lives of the common people so expendable to the insensitive rulers of this country? Where are those comrades who vowed to take action if the Yahapalana regime fail to deliver their promise? Where are you? Wake up! What are you waiting for? Your silence is deafening! Hold the man accountable, he who so miserably failed to do his job. Ask him to resign. Ask for a competent person to take charge of the Ministry of Disaster Management, immediately!

Anura, were you scraping coconut for one year?

It has been a year since the last year’s flood and some of the displaced are still displaced. For one long year, you didn’t do anything to prepare for this year’s monsoon. You failed to organise your ministry and the relevant departments. You failed to coordinate with other relevant ministries. You failed to analyse historical weather data. You failed to analyse the geological conditions. You failed to identify the risk-zones. You failed to plan for the worst. You failed to inform the people about the imminent disaster. You failed to evacuate the people, your own people, people who voted for you, people of your country of which you are a minister! You failed to mobilise the government officers, the thousands of Gramasevakas, the Divisional Secretaries and the Police to evacuate people to designated safe-zones. Hell, you failed to even designate any safe-zones for people to run to! What kind of a disaster management minister are you?

You failed to equip the hospitals in target areas with medicine, doctors, nurses and support staff in case the worst happen. You failed to stock food, clothing and essentials at designated relief centres. You failed to use the media to inform the people in risk-zones in time on the imminent threat. You failed to use the Police to evacuate at least the children to safe-zones. You failed to build a state-of-the-art monitoring system to track the weather and water-level around the country. You failed to build a system to track the actual ground-level situation. You failed to implement a plan when the worst happen. You failed to build a system to coordinate the relief efforts. You failed. You failed. You failed. Your ministry’s website is a disgrace. (ICTA, before you send balloons up… can you do something useful for a change? Like at least building useful digital tools for critical government ministries.)

Anura, was Mexico more important than your own country?

What kind of a minister gives speeches about disaster management at a conference in Mexico when there is a disaster happening in his own country? You are the highest authority for disaster management in this country. This country and its people should be your utmost priority. You should’ve taken the first flight home the moment you heard about the disaster. Hell, if you predicted this disaster, you shouldn’t have left in the place! What kind of wisdom were you mumbling in Mexico, when you clearly couldn’t plan for a recurring monsoon in your own country for one whole year? Those conference organisers must be real geniuses to invite somebody like you to talk to them.

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3 officials caught stealing relief goods

Jun 04, 2017

Displaced people housed at Rahula Vidyalaya in Matara finally caught the thieves who had been stealing the relief goods intended for them. There are around 1,800 persons taking shelter there.

Just after midnight yesterday (03), they captured the thieves – the three state officials in charge of the place – along with some of the stolen goods. They were later handed over to Matara police.

This morning, police, divisional secretariat and social services officials went to the school, broke the padlock and opened a room where bottled water, mats, towels, mattresses and other items were stored and distributed them to the people.

These displaced people have complained that they were not getting the relief items intended for them, and that the three officials had prohibited them from venturing out of the classrooms where they spent the nights after midnight.

The police, divisional secretariat and social services officials are investigating the three suspects.

By Indunil Kelum Jayaweera in Matara

Is Mega Development causing Mega Disasters?

2017-06-05

Colombo Port City project

While the government was swift to release money for relief and compensation for those affected by the recent floods, the tendency of politicians and bureaucrats has been to blame the victims for the disaster. Officials have attributed it to illegal constructions along river-bank reservation areas, and people’s refusal to comply with directives to evacuate danger-prone areas.“Those who build illegal constructions obstructing waterways should know they are building their own graves,” said a statement from Minister of Megapolis and Western Development Champika Ranawaka, who also ordered the demolition of illegal structures. Minister of Disaster Management Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said government was considering bringing in laws to forcibly evacuate people in situations where disaster was imminent.  
While there is no denying that those living in danger prone areas are putting themselves at risk, doesn’t the government have a responsibility to prevent such needless loss of life? As the daily TV updates illustrated graphically, most of those who were struck down were poor. 
Though politicians have chosen not to talk about the causes of the severity of the flooding in seven districts, environmentalists have repeatedly drawn attention to factors relating to flash floods which could be mitigated through better planning. They say landfills that destroy wetlands, that would normally accumulate run-off, have been a major contributory factor, along with haphazard building and poor drainage.  Similarly scientists link the extensive landslides, which caused most of the deaths this time, to the quarrying of massive amounts of rock for an increasing number of mega development projects, that have created instability in the ground structure.

Regulating these matters clearly comes within the purview of government authorities. By focusing on the illegality of the squatters the government deflects attention away from its own lapses.

Dr. Ranil Senanayake, Sri Lanka’s only qualified Systems Ecologist, responding to questions on the causes of the recent tragedy said he would not call it ‘unplanned development’ but rather ‘irresponsible urbanization.’ Dr. Senanayake who is known internationally for introducing the concept of Analog Forestry (though regrettably his expertise is not made use of in Sri Lanka) said, “Development has taken place with no regards to the physical nor cultural geography. In most of the so-called ‘development’ projects, development seems to be either spending the borrowed money as fast as possible or carving out land for investment.”

When planning for development it should at least follow watershed boundaries he said. “Watershed boundaries are the lines that indicate where the rainfall moves to,” he explained, in an email interview. “The rainfall on one side of the boundary feeds one river while the rainfall on the other side feeds another river. One could say these are the lines that determine how the rainfall moves towards the ocean.” 

"In most of the ‘development’ projects, development seems to be either spending the borrowed money as fast as possible or carving out land for investment.”

-Dr. Ranil Senanayake

The $1.4 billion Chinese-funded Port City - a huge complex consisting of luxury apartments, shops, restaurants, parks and a marina, to be built on land being reclaimed from the sea, is an example of a mega project involving a massive amount of rock-quarrying.  Asked if this activity could be related to increased risk of landslides Dr. Senanayake said “Mega projects, demanding mega resources will have mega consequences. The quarrying for the Port City has already begun to impact the shallow aquifer. The geological activity in the area of the slides, the rock quarries, the charge impact allowed etc. must be part of the post mortem of the collapsed hills.”
Dr. Senanayake has written extensively on the dangers posed by lack of Scientific Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) reports relating to Port City. In a scathing critique of ‘the promoters of the project’ in a newspaper article last month he said “SEIA’s are being issued to cover any aspect of their crookedness, as it surfaces. This allows them to skirt national laws and genuine concerns that citizens have of impacts on their well-being.”

Referring to the 2014 landslide in Meeriyabedde, Koslanda, he told the Daily Mirror that “drilling and blasting fractured rock formations for the Uma Oya tunnel, certainly seems to be linked” to it. 

So what is to be done? Dr. Senanayake says “the Government should immediately stop all non essential quarrying. It should ask for detailed impact reports before any rock quarrying can be conducted. The department on mines should be taken to task for allowing dangerous blasting that weakens the ground structure to carry on. At present it is given as a political ‘gift’ to hangers on etc. No standards, no concern for communities living around...”

 Last month’s floods and landslides were a man-made disaster, he said. “... Starting with the fact that cyclonic intensity goes up 25% for each degree rise in sea surface temperatures and we have been contributing to the rise in global temperatures through our acceptance of fossil fuels to drive development processes.It was amplified by the filling up of the wetlands and increasing the impervious surfaces with urbanisation fuelled by the plastic and other domestic garbage choking our drainage.”

A problem that has come to light with the recent media focus on landslides is that Sri Lanka’s lead agency on landslide related matters, the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) lacks the powers to enforce its own directives. According to its website “NBRO issues Landslide Risk Assessment Reports as a pre-requisite for granting of building permits and approval of development projects.”  But it turns out these are assessments only. The issuance of permits is assigned to local authorities, according to NBRO’s Director of Landslide Research and Risk Management R. M. S. Bandara.

• Those living in danger-prone areas are putting themselves at risk

• It is the Government’s responsibility to prevent such needless loss of life

• Quarrying of massive amounts of rock for development projects weaken ground’s stability

• Port City project,  an example of a mega project involving massive rock-quarrying

• Koslanda disaster, a result of blasting rocks to form Uma Oya tunnel

 “Our approval is required. But people don’t come to us.  It is a local government process” Bandara said. “We only give recommendations to the local government authority. 

We can only recommend, we can’t enforce (the recommendations).”   It’s anybody’s guess as to why the government has failed to empower the appropriate and qualified authority in a matter as important as issuing building permits and approvals for development projects. Given the recent rash of building collapses, landslides, roads caving in etc. around the country, along with the consequent loss of life, does it not amount to criminal neglect to assign this task to non-specialists? Or is it that this area is just too lucrative for politicians to lay their hands off?

Kushner: Albatross round Trump’s neck

Russia Inquiry will have to follow the money wherever it leads

Trump’s ties to Russia

June 3, 2017, 7:02 pm 

(Adapted from LA Times)

Second row: Michael Flynn* (former National Security Advisor), Jeff Sessions Attorney General (recused from Russia probe), Carter Page* (former foreign policy advisor), Jared Kushner (senior advisor and son-in-law).

Third row: Sergey Kislyak (Russian Ambassador), Sergey Gorkov (Vnesheconom Bank Chief).

Fourth row: Roger Stone (long time Trump confidante), Paul Manafort* (former Trump campaign manager)

Fifth row: Oleg Deripaska Russian (aluminium billionaire) [*People fired in last 3 months]

by Kumar David

Who finds the heifer dead and bleeding fresh And fast by a butcher with an axe But will suspect ‘twas he that made the slaughter
Henry VI, Pt 2

Russia poked, probed and interfered in the 2016 US presidential elections; there’s no news value in that. America and all big or regional powers influence foreign events to their advantage and if possible engineer regime change. America is world leader at that game. But I also think Russian interference did not have a discernible effect on the outcome. Trump won because a swathe of America’s underprivileged classes, unemployed white workers and ranting racists, fed up with the elite and ‘The System’, united in anger. (Elite + System * Swamp). And the Trump base is still holding solid. I am not commenting on the legality of interference, but am speculating it was of little significance in deciding the elections outcome.

It may turn out that there was undesirable, deplorable or even malfeasant conduct by Trump’s team, with or without the knowledge of the boss, but I would not be surprised if the final finding is that no indictable or even impeachable offence had been committed. There is no smoking gun yet, no hard evidence yet, only a tangle of circumstantial events which are inexplicable. Special Counsel Bob Mueller is a stickler and the expectation is that he will be precise in law and balanced in findings. To that extent we can repose confidence in the residual structures of American democracy, which is a great deal more than we can say for ourselves, especially during the Rajapaksa era.

I am prepared to hazard a hunch that what will be explosive is not collusion with Russia, but rather, the financial tangles which Mueller’s probe may unravel. Remember ‘The Untouchables’ never got Al Capone for drug and liquor running; it was comparatively trivial tax evasion that landed him in Alcatraz. Nixon came to grief not for the Watergate break-in but for firing investigator Archibald Cox who was demanding access to White House tapes. That much loved rascal Bill Clinton was not impeached for lechery but for lying to a Grand Jury about his capers. Where an investigation starts and where the trail leads are convoluted. To cut to the point, what I am saying is that it may not be alleged collusion with Russia but family and businesses financial trails the inquiry may unveil that could be fatal.

Nevertheless for the benefit of readers who have not followed details I will summarise what is known and what suspected about the Russian connections of the three Trump teams – in chronological order, the campaign team, the transition team and White House-cum-Cabinet.

From Russia with love

The youthful all powerful Grand Wazir of the Trump presidency is Jared Kushner, son-in-law (married to Ivanka) and during the campaign and transition, point man for foreign officials. During the campaign he met Sergey Gorkov who has ties to Putin and runs a bank under U.S. sanctions for Russian annexation of Crimea. The meeting was for private business we were told– not illegal, just extraordinary for the time. Then on 19 December 2016, during the transition, he asked Ambassador Kislak to set up a secret communication channel between the transition team and the Kremlin. A president elect’s Grand Wazir bypassing the nation’s security agencies is astounding! Again not illegal but Kushner has become an albatross round Trump’s neck and will likely be a pre-impeachment sacrificial offering.

Carter Page a confidant of Trump and his foreign policy advisor, later described as "a very low-level member of the campaign team", was fired when his deep connections with Russia came to light. Page had business dealings with Russian oil and gas companies. His partner Paul Manafort had extensive Russian business connections and may have been paid millions by a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. Manafort had links to Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and twice predicted the release of documents. He was kicked out of the transition team when these connections and links to oligarch Deripaska were exposed.

Michael Flynn, Trump’s intelligence expert, was appointed National Security Advisor but resigned in three weeks after it was disclosed he had had dealings with Ambassador Kislyak and lied about it to Vice President Mike Pence. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s Attorney General (Justice Minister) was compelled to recuse himself from the Russia probe after news of meetings with Kislyak which he concealed during his confirmation hearing, came to light.

Loquacious and quick witted, Sergey Kislyak fits the mould of savvy long-serving envoys who shaped Moscow-Washington relations. He acts strategically to engage family members of foreign leaders thought to be useful allies. The Chinese are past masters at this as we know from the Rajapaksa case.

I do not wish to burden readers with an information overload; a summary comment will do as catchall: There has been a phenomenal amount of contact between Trump’s teams and family, and the Kremlin and Russian officials. However as I will detail next, this pales beside the financial ties between Trump’s businesses, and Russian oligarchs of dubious repute and Russian and Kazakh mobsters.

Financial jabberwocky

"How quickly nature falls into revolt when gold becomes her object," Shakespeare’s Henry IV moaned in Part II, Act 4. Shoddy and shady business dealings, dubious Russian and Central Asian mafia connections and lying under oath are the subject of several recent studies and documentaries. All pertain to the period prior to the presidency, perhaps prior to the candidacy, I think. Authors of three books are two Trump biographers James Henry and Michael d’Antonio and an attorney Fred Obelander. Documentaries, available on YouTube, are ‘Dubious Friends of Donald Trump’ (Dutch producer Zembla, 2017), a BBC Newsnight programme in 2013 and ‘Donald Trump’s business links to the mob’ (BBC; March 2016).

If a fraction of what these books and documentaries allege is true, it’s hair-raising. There have been dicey American presidents before but this is the daddy of them all. Mob work was run from the Trump Tower (by an outfit called Bayrock Co.), close ties are alleged to convicted crime boss Felix Slater and a big Russian mafia figure, Semion Mogilevich. There was a partnership with Alif, a crooked Kazak billionaire; Trump was the front for Alif to penetrate US business. If all this is fabrication and fake news we should have seen a slew of libel suits long ago.

The reason Trump broke with tradition and refused to bare his tax filings, as all previous presidential candidates have done, is palpable; it would have brought to light the timbre of his business associates, and it could have exposed at best shoddy at worst illegal transactions. Mueller’s probe will drag much of this into the open; this explains Trump’s apoplectic anger. Mueller has called for Trump’s family financial and loan documents to be handed over. Again, Henry IV, Pt.2 offers an apposite line: "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown".

American security and intelligence agencies are leaking like a sieve. A day does not go by without another embarrassing revelation creeping into the New York Times or Washington Post. It is being said, correctly, that the Deep State and the liberal media are out to get him; but I have also heard the defence that federal officials are at the end of their wits how to limit the absurdity of this administration and that without the media there would have been no Congressional investigations or Special Counsel.

Popinjay Trump’s braggadocio strutting on the European stage won his country no friends. Angela Merkel declared after his departure "Europe can no longer depend on the US". Perhaps Trump took his cue from Henry IV, Pt.2: "Be it thy course to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels, the action hence borne out may waste the memory of former days". Or maybe Henry VI, Pt. 3 takes a nod in the direction of Vladimir Putin: "How can tyrants safely govern home, unless abroad they purchase great alliances?" Let me not prolong my "romp with the Henrys", as a friend calls it, and settle on "Thou foul accursed minister of hell!"

“She should die”: Israelis taunt critically wounded Palestinian girl

Maureen Clare Murphy-1 June 2017

A Palestinian girl was shot and critically wounded after she allegedly stabbed and lightly injured an Israeli soldier outside the Mevo Dotan settlement in the northern occupied West Bank on Thursday. She died in an Israeli hospital the following day.

Video from the scene shows the girl, identified as Nouf Aqab Infayat, 16, lying on the ground and moaning in pain while Israelis stand around her, cursing her and calling for her death:

A Palestinian girl was shot by Israeli soldiers. And while she was bleeding, settlers insulted her and told her to die. pic.twitter.com/K4bwCNlQkG

— AJ+ (@ajplus) June 1, 2017

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AJ+ 

✔@ajplus

A Palestinian girl was shot by Israeli soldiers. And while she was bleeding, settlers insulted her and told her to die.

9:17 AM - 1 Jun 2017

 
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“She should die. She should fuck off,” one man is heard saying in the video.

No one is shown attempting to administer first aid to the girl.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Infayat was shot in the stomach.

“Local settlers said that the she approached the gate to the settlement, carrying on even after a soldier at the post demanded that she stay away,” according to Haaretz. “She approached a group of soldiers near the gate and stabbed one of them, they said.”

Security camera footage from the scene shows Infayat approaching the settlement before disappearing from view. Israeli forces are then seen running. The alleged stabbing is not shown on the video:

Gaza boy in critical condition

Meanwhile, a Palestinian boy shot by Israeli forces in Gaza last week remains in critical condition, according to Defense for Children International Palestine.

Khalid Ghamri, 16, was participating in a protest against Israel’s blockade of Gaza and in support of the hunger strike being waged by Palestinian prisoners when he was hit in the abdomen with live fire near Bureij refugee camp on 23 May.

A doctor at a hospital in Deir al-Balah told Defense for Children International Palestine that the bullet passed through Ghamri’s right arm, causing a fracture, and “also lacerated his bowel and abdomen on the right side, damaging blood vessels that supply blood to the lower body.”

The rights group stated that Ghamri turned 17 while unconscious in the hospital.

Israeli soldiers operate under an apparent shoot-to-kill policy in Gaza’s boundary areas. So far this year, two Palestinian fishermen have died as a result of being fired on by the Israeli navy off the Gaza coast, and a 15-year-old Palestinian was killed when he was shot in the head near Gaza’s boundary with Israel.

Man dies of injuries

Twenty-six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and armed civilians so far this year, as was an Israeli settler apparently mistaken for a Palestinian assailant. Six Israelis, most of them soldiers, and a British national have been killed by Palestinians during the same time period.

A Palestinian man who was shot by police in the Israeli city of Netanya last week died from his injuries two days later.

Muhannad Abd al-Rahman, from the occupied West Bank town of Tulkarm, was shot and detained after allegedly stabbing an Israeli police officer in the neck, causing light injuries.

This story was updated on 2 June to reflect that Nouf Infayat died of her injuries, and to correct her age and first name.

Leaked emails: UAE, pro-Israel think tank plan meeting on Qatar, Al Jazeera

Leak of emails belonging to UAE ambassador to US follows recent hacking of Qatari state news agency

Saturday 3 June 2017 16:40 UTC-Sunday 4 June 2017

Hackers have released email exchanges between the Emirati ambassador to the US and top foreign policy figures that include details of a forthcoming meeting between UAE officials and a pro-Israel think tank, reports said on Saturday.

UAE envoy Yousef al-Otaiba is an influential figure in Washington DC, and is in "almost constant phone and email contact" with US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.

The emails reveal what appears to be a close relationship between Otaiba and members of the pro-Israel think tank, Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), which is funded by businessman Sheldon Adelson, an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a major donor to US conservative and Republican Party Causes.

Such a high level of backchannel cooperation between a Gulf monarchy that does not recognise Israel and a leading neoconservative think tank might seem surprising had they not worked together in the past against their common rival, Iran.

The emails also detail a multi-page proposed agenda of a forthcoming meeting between FDD and UAE government officials that is scheduled for 11-14 June.

Read more ►

EXCLUSIVE: UAE 'funnelled money to Turkish coup plotters'

Mark Dubowitz, FDD's CEO, and John Hannah, FDD's senior counsellor, are listed as attending, as well as Jonathan Schanzer, FDD vice president for research. UAE officials requested for meetings to include Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince who commands the armed forces.

The agenda includes an extensive discussion between the two sides on Qatar. They are scheduled to discuss, for example, "Al Jazeera as an instrument of regional instability". Media network Al Jazeera is based in Qatar and is state-funded.

Also included is discussion of possible US-UAE "policies to positively impact Iranian internal situation". Among the list of policies are "political, economic, military, intelligence, and cyber tools," which are also brought up as a possible response to "contain and defeat Iranian aggression".

Then national security adviser Susan Rice speaks with Yousef al-Otaiba, UAE Ambassador to US, during an Iftar dinner at the White House in 2013 (AFP)

In another email, Dubowitz sends Otaiba a list of companies that invest in both Iran and the UAE, in an apparent attempt to encourage the Emirati government to apply pressure on those companies to make a choice.

And last August, Hannah sent Otaiba an article claiming the UAE and FDD were both behind an attempted military coup in Turkey.

"Honored that we're in your company,” Hannah writes to Otaiba. One month before the attempted coup Hannah set out the case for a military takeover of Turkey in an article in Foreignpolicy.com. 

Hannah wrote: "Some kind of military intervention also can't be dismissed entirely - especially if coupled with widespread popular opposition to Erdogan's rising despotism and disregard for Turkey's existing constitution ... Should Turkey's situation continue to deteriorate, the theory goes, it's not unthinkable that the military would turn on Erdogan in order to 'save' Turkey from his road to Islamist dictatorship and state failure."

In a recent email exchange in April, Hannah complains to Otaiba that Qatar is hosting a Hamas meeting at an Emirati-owned hotel.

Otaiba replies that the real issue was the US military base in Qatar - "How's this, you move the base then we'll move the hotel :-)."

The leaks follow the recent hacking of the Qatari state news agency, which published fake remarks by the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, that purportedly had him criticising some leaders of fellow Gulf Arab states and calling for an easing of tensions with Iran.

Read more ►

US investigators helping Qatar probe alleged agency website hacking

Writing to Washington Post journalist David Ignatius, after the latter wrote a column about Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Otaiba writes: "It looks from how you wrote this piece, that you are beginning to see what we've been seeing for the last two years. Change!"

“Change in attitude, change in style, change in approach,” the Emirati ambassador writes.

“I think we should all agree these changes in Saudi are much needed…” he continues, before saying: “Our job now, is to do everything possible to ensure MBS succeeds,” referring to the deputy crown prince and defence minister.

In July 2013, after Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was deposed, Otaiba wrote excitedly to former George W Bush administration officials Stephen Hadley and Joshua Bolten. 

“Today’s situation in Egypt is a second revolution. There more people on the streets today than January of 2011. This is not a coup, this is revolution 2.0. A coup is when the military imposes its will on people by force. Today, the military is RESPONDING to people’s wishes.”

An email from Otaiba to Robert Gates, former defence secretary for Barack Obama, and now a principal at RiceHadleyGates, an influential Washington consulting firm, reveals friendly associations between Gates and Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

"MBZ sends his best from abu dhabi," Otaiba writes. "He says 'give them hell tomorrow'."

The anonymous hackers, calling themselves GlobalLeaks, sent the emails to the Intercept, Huffington Post, and the Daily Beast.

The hackers used an .ru email address, associated with Russia, meaning they may be connected with Russia or trying to give the impression that they are.

Idi Amin and Donald Trump - strong men with unlikely parallels

June 1, 2017

US President Donald Trump’s norm-breaking campaign and early reign has been compared to several other divisive historical figures, especially previous American presidents.

But when it comes to the style in which he communicates, there’s an uncanny resemblance to a notorious African dictator from the 1970s. For those that lived during Idi Amin’s vicious reign in Uganda between 1971 and 1979, there are clear echoes four decades later in Trump’s speeches and press conferences, or when he fires off his notorious tweets.

Let me say up front, Trump, who was democratically elected, can in no way be compared to Amin when it comes to how the so-called “Butcher of Uganda” came to power or the brutal way he dealt with dissent during his eight-year regime. One of the most barbaric military dictators in post-independence Africa, the death toll of his own citizens under his rule, is put at 500,000.

The comparison I am looking at is the similarity of styles and tone of communication. Even though Trump and Amin are from completely different eras with different modes of communication, there are clear parallels between the two telegenic men.

Decrees with flourish

Amin’s numerous decrees were announced on radio and television and carried in newspapers with flourish. One such decree was the expulsion of the Asian/Indian community from Uganda.

In front of international television cameras and newspaper journalists Amin accused the Indians of being “smugglers who carried five passports”. He blamed Britain for bringing them to Uganda during the colonial rule. Amin claimed that the expulsion decision was taken in the national economic interests of Uganda:

I took this decision for the economy of Uganda and I must make sure that every Ugandan gets the fruit of independence. I want to see the whole Kampala street is not full of Indians.

Fast forward 44 years. At a campaign rally Trump promised to deport illegal immigrants from Mexico, some of whom he called “rapists”. Trump also announced that he was going to build a wall barring them from entry into the United States which Mexico was going to pay for.

“Mark my words,” he said. Afterwards he proclaimed that he “loved Hispanics”.

In similar style Amin said “it’s not my responsibility to offer them (expelled British Asians) transit camps! The British High Commissioner is here and it is his responsibility”. Remarking afterwards that the British “are my great friends”.

For Amin’s Uganda, it was a devastating decision. The expelled Asians/Indians were the entrepreneurs, bankers, professional class who had formed the country’s middle class since colonial times. Six months after their departure the country’s hitherto promising African economy spiralled into recession.

Trump’s America may not suffer the expulsion of unwanted foreigners but its regional entrepreneurs such as potato and vegetable growers will suffer from the absence of cheap available labour from across the border in Mexico.

Impulsive use of technology

The two presidents have similarities in their impulsive use of quick communication technology. Trump is a compulsive tweeter while Amin loved dispatching telegrams.

Amin telegraphed disgraced American President Richard Nixon wishing him a “quick recovery from Watergate” and to Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, his erstwhile foe, a peculiar message in lieu of peace talks at the height of a war between the true countries:

If you were a woman I would have married you … although your head is full of grey hairs.

There were even more bizarre ones to the Queen of England, saying he expected her to send him “her 25-year-old knickers” in celebration of the silver anniversary of her coronation. There was an offer of assistance to Edward Heath, the British Prime Minister to save the British economy,

If you would let me know the exact position of the mess.

A Trump tweet to Iowa voters who voted against him in the primaries had similar condescending tones:

Too much Monsanto in the corn creates issues in the brain?

It was later deleted.

There was another tweet about James Comey, the FBI Director he fired:

 

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Donald J. Trump

 

✔@realDonaldTrump

FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds! The phony...

10:51 PM - 2 May 2017

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And then there’s this tweet about a topic that has often occupied his mind, namely his predecessor Barack Obama’s legacy:

 

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Donald J. Trump

 

✔@realDonaldTrump

"The first 90 days of my presidency has exposed the total failure of the last eight years of foreign policy!" So true. @foxandfriends

8:07 AM - 17 Apr 2017

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Being fired on television

Amin loved firing his officials on radio and television. A minister of culture, Yekosofat Engur, attended a public function as guest of honour not knowing that his junior had just been appointed in his place on Uganda’s broadcast media.

Former FBI chief Comey learned in a similar fashion of his fate. He learned of his firing while addressing agents at a field office in Los Angeles – breaking news flashes on television of Trump sacking him, was the first Comey heard of it.

There are also parallels in their sabre rattling. Amin threatened to invade Israel, not holding back:

If am to prepare the war against Israel completely, I don’t want very many Army, Air force and Navy, just very few and strike inside…

“I love war,” Trump declared his passion for violence during a campaign speech in Iowa in late 2015. He added:

I’m good at war. I’ve had a lot of wars of my own. I’m really good at war. I love war in a certain way, but only when we win.

Low opinion

The two presidents both have a low opinion of women and not shy to express that. Amin remarked that he was a “good marksman” (with women) while showing off his numerous children. He had four wives and more than 30 children.

Trump has had a long trial of sexist comments such as this one:

You know, it doesn’t really matter what [the media] write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass …

What the two share most is their sense of self importance.

In 1977, after Britain broke diplomatic relations with his regime, Amin declared he had beaten the British. He titled himself “Conqueror of the British Empire”, short for, “His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Alhaji Dr Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE”. He said he would be happy to accept the Scots “secret wish” to have him as their monarch, hence the Hollywood movie title “The Last King of Scotland”.

Amin also wrenched a Doctorate of Law from Uganda’s Makerere University and henceforth considered himself in the same league with medical doctors.

As Salon wrote, the only two words former reality show host Trump has uttered more frequently than “you’re fired” are “I’m smart”. He said about Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania’s business school:

Look, I went to the best school, I was a good student and all of this stuff. I mean, I’m a smart person.

They both share a passion for control and love to be loved. The New Yorker’s Jeff Seshol reckons that Trump’s chief complaint about his own yes-men seems to be that they don’t say yes energetically enough.

It’s easier when you’re a dictator. Amin was clear:

As minister, governor, high-ranking people and the people of the country, they must love their leader. This is the point number one.

Turning into Amin

Respected East African commentator Charles Onyango Obbo believes that,

The genius of Trump is that he understands what adept guerrilla leaders figured out ages ago – do that which the opponent thinks is impossible or so unthinkable, they have not planned how to defend it.

The same went for Amin who for a long time was considered a comic buffoon while he terrorised a whole country and fanned international terrorism.

Some may think it’s alarmist, but Onyango Obbo has warned that with all the similarities,

Trump – or indeed any leader in an “advanced” democracy – can turn into an Idi Amin.